Factors affecting gender equality among societies in Karachi, Pakistan: a mediation and moderation analyses

Abstract

The goal of this study is to build to investigate the elements that influence gender equality in Karachi Societies. Karachi is one of Pakistan's largest cities, a developing country in South East Asia. When it comes to gender, the country, like many other developing countries, has a substantial inequality in resources and rights. Women in developing countries are influenced by a variety of socio-cultural practices and racial factors, including a diverse range of spiritual traditions, a complicated legal system, and complex economic and political quandaries. In this study, the non-probabilistic convenience sampling strategy was used for the reason of addressing incomplete population of the target audience during the COVID-19 lockout. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was carried out in this study with the help of smart PLS software to establish a causal link between the predictor, mediating, moderating, and criterion variables. Keeping a watch on the data, it becomes clear that the independent variables separately have a weak to moderating impact towards the variable there pertaining to be at the mediator factor are the dependent variable. The mediating variables have a relatively stronger contribution to gender equality. The beta value of each of use is 0.36, indicating a weak to moderate contribution, whereas the beta value of distinction is 0.59, indicating a moderate to higher contribution to gender equality. The average contribution value of all independent variables is greater than 0.20, with some values reaching up to 0.30, indicating a moderate to weak contribution to gender equality. Many studies have been conducted to investigate the concerns and causes related to women's challenges; however, lack of causal (explanatory) research has been conducted on the subject. Thus, this research provides fruitful knowledge to the existing literature on the mediation and moderation analyses towards gender equality among societies in Pakistan.